Building a wall - around Genre

Defining genre: 

Genres are ways in which people ‘‘get things done’’ through their use of language in particular contexts. An academic essay is an example of a genre. It is a socially approved way in which students show what they know, what they can do, and what they have learned in a course of study.

In drafting their essays, writers use language in particular ways according to the aim and purpose of the genre and the relationship between the writer and the audience. The way writers use language in a genre also depends on the expectations of the context in which the genre is being produced. Writers also draw on their previous experiences with the genre to produce a new text

. In our classrooms, we should promote student exploration of a variety of genres written in and for a variety of audiences and contexts, thus enabling students to develop as readers and writers who can examine, initiate, and respond to the many rhetorical situations they will confront in school, in work, and in their social and cultural lives